Dusk of the living
by kittredgedh
Summary: The story of the infection spreading from ground zero. Told through the eyes of a African-American teenage kid from South Atlanta, A rich white girl from Buckhead and others.
1. Gound Zero

Dusk of the Living

Dusk of the Living

Chapter One

_Atlanta, GA 12:00 p.m._

It was a cool day outside. Terrell Jamison sat in his 10th grade Algebra 2 class idly watching the clock. Mrs. Carson, a 25 year veteran at Cooke High school, was in the middle of explaining cubed roots, when the intercom buzzed on. "All teachers and administrators please report to the front office immediately." Mrs. Carson set down the textbook and commanded, "Read chapter 24 while I am gone," she lowered her voice, "Nobody moves an inch."

Mrs. Carson hurriedly left the classroom. After a few seconds Richard, who was repeating the 10th grade, asked to no one in particular, "So what do you think that was all about?" Soon everyone in class was whispering and joking to one another. I just sat in my chair getting drowsy. After about 5 minutes the intercom came on again. "All faculty and students report to the gymnasium." "Hey T, we might get out of school early!" chirped James Evers, one of my good friends. I nodded and replied with a hopeful laugh.

I walked to the gymnasium surrounded by a sea of students surging forward. When I stepped inside all the teachers were at doors. Cooke has a fairly large gymnasium with an NBA sized basketball court. The stands were filling up, so I took a seat next to Maxine, a freshman.

After all 1500 students were inside the teachers closed the doors and the principal stood at the center of the court. The conversations ceased after a moment and Ms. Jones cleared her throat. "Students! There has been an accident downtown! The authorities believe that there may be chemical contamination. I have been instructed to send all of you home early today. There will be NO school tomorrow!" Some of my peers looked happy, others looked very nervous. I walked home. There were no cars in sight.

I called my parents when I got home. They are in Hawaii on their anniversary vacation. I didn't tell them about the chemical spill; it was fun being home alone. After a few hours I dozed off on the couch. I awoke around 9:30 p.m. with the TV blaring. I opened yawned and turned down the volume. There was an emergency broadcast. News anchor Tim Donald was talking. He looked frightened.

_Hello my fellow Americans. Earlier this day there was a massive explosion at a research facility. All of the scientists were presumed dead. Unfortunately 10 minutes after the explosion the scientists came pouring out of the rubble attacking bystanders. _ Behind him was a live feed of downtown. It showed people covered in blood attacking pedestrians, and pulling people out of cars. One man was attacked by a group and had all of his limbs torn from his torso. Many buildings were on fire. Hundreds of people were running through the streets. Many people were being trampled. The police were backed up to the only bridge leading out of the area the chaos was occurring. The police and SWAT were trying to contain the masses. Many people were being shot. Suddenly a group of people wearing lab coats jumped the policeman. After a few seconds there were hundreds of people running across the bridge. Many were being tackled and bitten

_The victims of the explosion have been infected with a very powerful biological chemical that was engineered to help re-grow organs faster and cheaper than stem cells. The virus stops all brain functions, killing the body, but its effects reactivate the primal part of the brain which says eat. The infection is transferred through blood and saliva. The only thing the un-dead victims' brains can process is eating human flesh. The National Guard is blocking all highways and streets that lead from the city. Starting now Atlanta is on quarantine. _

The screen panned to show highways guarded by thousands of soldiers. The army was killing anyone who looked like a threat. Before the camera turned a way I saw a 4 year old with one arm get torn apart by M16's. I was speechless.


	2. The Burbs

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. For all of those not from the ATL, Buckhead is a very wealthy section of the city.

**Dusk of the Living**

Chapter 2

Buckhead, ATL, GA That same night.

Christine Swanson had just gotten home from varsity tennis practice when the news came on. Her home was settled inside of Soapstone Court, a gated community with a private security force of 20 ex army soldiers who guarded the 200 homes. Their 6,000 square foot Mc Mansion was nestled on a beautiful 2 acre piece of land with a neatly manicured lawn. Her parents were in the dining room eating filet mignon. She sat down on the elephant leather couch and turned the volume up on their 50 inch Visio. Christine watched in silent horror for 10 minutes. "Mother! Father!" she cried. Her parents rushed to the living room. Christine pointed to the screen. The fair-skinned mother turned even paler. "We will be safe." Declared the James Swanson. "Come on Martha we will go and talk to the security force." Her parents swiftly exited. Christine went to her room and locked the door. She barely slept. Because a strange new noise was continuous all night, police sirens and helicopters.

She awoke in the morning and went down to the kitchen wearing a red warm-up suit. She checked the clock it said 11:12. On the refrigerator was a note that said, _went to_ _the clubhouse for tennis, will be back at 11:00. _ The Clubhouse was about 2 miles away. Christine decided to jog over and see what was going on. Christine glanced at the TV; on it was a reporter warning that the infected areas have reached to include all of Atlanta. The reporter went on to warn that infected are everyone. He warned everyone to lock all doors and windows. Christine looked out one of the windows to see the neighborhood quiet as usual. The next door neighbors' children were playing basketball. She looked out further and saw her parents with tennis gear on, their rackets slung over their shoulders. Christine wondered why her parents had risked even stepping outside. She figured her parents had a lot of faith in the security force. Someone else was on the sidewalk as well Christine noticed.

It was a middle-aged man about 6 ft. tall wearing a tattered business suit. He was walking about 20 yards behind the Swanson's. Christine looked closer and saw that he was very pale. She looked again and noticed his arm was bleeding. Christine heart started beating incredibly fast. She started hyperventilated as she ran outside. Her parents were still ½ a mile from home. "Look out!" she screamed. Her parents saw her and started jogging. "Look out!" she yelled again. This time her parents turned and saw the infected man. That's when they started running. Unfortunately the infected man was not alone. 5 more bleeding infected jumped out of a manicured shrub 20 feet ahead of Martha and James. Cornered, middle aged couple dashed out into the street. That is where James tripped on a rock and fell. Christine yelped as she watched paralyzed in fear. 3 infected jumped on James. Christine could hear her Fathers screams. Her mother ran back towards the clubhouse, screaming. The remaining infected followed her. Her neighbors had heard what was going on. Many stepped out on their front porches to investigate. Most of the people ran right back into their homes. Christine turned and ran inside. She sprinted through her house to the garage, picking up he fathers hunting rifle, bullets, food and a change of clothes. She got in her mothers' white Navigator, and threw her supplies in the backseat. She gripped the steering wheel and took several deep breaths. She sat in silence for a few seconds. She turned on the engine. The vehicle hummed to life. It had a full tank, as usual. She clicked a button and the garage door opened up. The noise hit her head on. She looked outside to see infected eating her neighbors, her neighbors eating her neighbors, the security force being overpowered. Instantly about 15 infected meandered over amidst the chaos and stood blocking her exit. Sweat was coming down hard over her eyes and she gripped the wheel so tight her knuckles were stark white. The bloodied infected glared hungrily. Christina flashed back to the sight of her father being killed. In that instant she turned on the floodlights, temporarily blinding the infected. When they flinched she floored the accelerator.

_I hope you enjoyed chapter2. In the next couple of chapters, Terrell and Christina meet along with other survivors. Please post comments or cool ideas. If I use any I will be sure to credit you in my story._


	3. Old Man

Smoke filled the room. It dissipated into every crevice of the small one bedroom apartment. It crept up the dingy walls, the unclean bathroom, into the fabric of the brown couch; it clung to the broken television, the unmade single bed, the laundry lying on the floor. The source of the smoke was a cigar in the mouth of an aging man they call Banner. The man they call Banner was laying on the brown couch in nothing but a white t-shirt and a torn pair of green cargo pants. At a glance he almost looked like a homeless person, but at a closer look you could see that he had a good set of biceps, and an even closer look of his gut could provide you with a hint of what used to be abs. The man was smoking his cigar slowly, savoring every second of satisfaction. Cigars seemed to be the only thing that got him through the day of late. Sitting at home collecting fraudulent welfare was depressing for most. It was on this cool day that they came. They came so fast that the aging man they call Banner had no time to react.

Terrell was trippin'. Terrell was trippin' hard. He scrambled around his house. He called his parents and they told him to stay put, they said they would arrange for an uncle or an aunt to bring him to Hawaii. After a few minutes he managed to get off the phone with his parents, and called James. James said that his family had a bomb shelter and that Terrell could stay there until this whole thing blew over. Suddenly he heard screaming in the background. Shots were fired and after a few seconds, all Terrell could hear was the sound of flesh being ripped off of the bone. He slowly hung up the phone and slumped to the floor. After several minutes of wallowing in self despair, the young teenager walked to his father's closet, reached past his suits, pulled out a shoebox, opened it and pulled out his father's berretta, then calmly stepped out into hell.

Banner saw the door fly open. He could taste the blood in the air. The hallway outside of his apartment was so dark that he could barely see how many of the shapes there were. He tried to rush into the bathroom but one of the shapes was on his leg. The pain of teeth digging into his leg paled in comparison with his will to live. He picked up the glass ashtray on the coffee table and hit the creature so hard that it shattered. He grabbed the door to the bathroom, but soon felt hands and teeth all over his back. Banner struggled as hard as he could but he was dragged back into the froth of bodies. Banner flailed about knocking the creatures around in his small apartment. Many were falling into each other getting entangled. This bought him a few seconds as he leaped on his bed. He reached behind his pillow and in one quick movement grabbed his Desert Eagle and opened fire onto the crowd of zombies. They were all running at him when he started shooting, so many fell on him or near him. Soon he was nearly trapped by dead and dying bodies. He managed to climb over the growing mountain of corpses just in time to be knocked into his only window, by the onrush of the second wave of zombies. He crashed through the window, losing his gun in the process. He fell a few feet onto the fire escape. His vision slowed down after that. The bodies of the zombies rushed out the window and jumped onto Banner. He couldn't breathe and the fire escape creaked and groaned. The zombies and Banner were so crowded neither could move. Then the fire escape broke. It tilted, and the zombies and Banner were slipping off the edge like water off a kitchen counter. The zombies fell to their deaths and Banner bitten and bloodied was hanging on to a rail with one arm, slowly dying.


End file.
